Adobe takes case against Apple to ‘Net with ad, open letter

Adobe's founders have something to say about Apple's decision to "close" the …

Adobe launched an ad campaign Thursday that pushes back against Apple's decision to outlaw most third-party compilers from creating iPhone OS apps. The ad, spotted running on Ars as well as other sites, says "We [heart] Apple," before flipping over to say that the company doesn't support "taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it, and what you experience on the web."

Clicking through on the ad takes you to a page on Adobe's site with a statement from Adobe on the value of choice, highlighting its support for HTML5, CSS, and H.264 "in addition to our own technologies." There is also an open letter from Adobe's founders, Chuck Geschke and John Warnock. The two state that they believe in the value of open markets as well as the freedom of choice.

"No company—no matter how big or how creative—should dictate what you can create, how you create it, or what you can experience on the web," reads the letter. "We believe that Apple, by taking the opposite approach, has taken a step that could undermine this next chapter of the web—the chapter in which mobile devices outnumber computers, any individual can be a publisher, and content is accessed anywhere and at any time."

It's clear why Adobe decided to move forward with this fairly aggressive campaign. Adobe has been on the wrong end of some beatdowns lately from both Apple and the Apple-using community, which came to a head two weeks ago when Apple CEO Steve Jobs published his own open letter on Flash. In the letter, Jobs waxed eloquent about Flash's performance on mobile devices, Flash being a closed platform itself, and the evils of cross-platform development tools.

A full 50 percent of Ars readers seemed to agree that most of Jobs' points were valid, though there were plenty who said they weren't fully on board with Apple's latest approach. Even users who recognize Flash's downsides are left with a bad taste in their mouths over Apple's ban on cross-platform tools—after all, there are plenty other tools out there besides Flash.

One thing is sure: if Adobe is willing to drop big money on an ad campaign to defend itself, it's beginning to feel threatened.